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The following information is provided by the Fisheries and Sealing Division, Department of the Environment, Box 1000, Stn. 1390, Iqaluit, NU X0A 0H0; Tel. 867-975-5969.
Nunavut, Canada's newest Territory (as of April 1, 1999), has a population of 27,000 people (23,000 of them Inuit) living in 28 small communities in an area covering 1,000,000 square kilometers, more than twice the size of Texas.
For thousands of years, seals have been a vital resource for survival in a very demanding environment. The seal is used for food, clothing, fuel, and arts and crafts. Very little is wasted. Seal harvesting has always been a central foundation of Inuit culture as it sustains traditional sharing customs, a special knowledge of the seal resource and its ecosystem, and the passing on of skills and values from elders to youth.
Principles of seal utilization in Nunavut include: sustainable use, humane harvesting, and complete use of the animal.
The population of the ring seal (not the harp seal harvested off Newfoundland) is in the order of 1.5-2 million. The current harvest is estimated at 30,000 animals per year, much less than historical levels and certainly less than the sustainable yield. Ring seals so not occur in concentrated herds like the harp seal, and are widely distributed across their habitat in the circumpolar north (unlike the harp seal, they are not a migrating species). Ring seals have never been endangered, and populations and harvest levels are monitored by the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board.
The harvesting of ring seals in Nunavut is practiced on a small-scale and subsistence basis. The central objective is to put a highly nutritious and preferred food on the table. The imputed (replacement) food value of ring seals is estimated to be as high as $10 million in Nunavut.
The skins from the seal are used first for domestic "home" use for clothing and arts and crafts, the latter having a value of $1 million in Nunavut. Surplus skins may be sold.
The cash value of selling seal skins as by-products of the hunt is critical for the purchase of harvesting supplies and equipment to sustain the subsistence hunt. Welfare, dependence, and social problems including suicide are the alternative.
Any true and sustainable conservation initiative must respect a number of key issues: the critical balance of nature, the rights of sovereign nations, and the value of cultural diversity (IWMC-World Conservation Trust). Sustainable use is a principle and a need that is interwoven through these issues.
Nunavut is a very staunch supporter of animal-welfare legislation, but cannot accept animal-rights rhetoric presented by IFAW and other organizations in the name of environmentalism. Animal-rights rhetoric is part of the problem insofar as it misrepresents nature and makes a Disney cartoon out of it, and thus further removes humans from the sustainable use of nature into non-sustainable alternatives. Environmentalism must be a science as opposed to a fundamentalist religion that attacks the livelihoods and cultures of other people.